


Mastery's Words and Swords

by Veritara



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Genre: Buoyant Armigers, Dunmer - Freeform, Gen, Lore Book, Morrowind, Vivec - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-21 02:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16150709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veritara/pseuds/Veritara
Summary: Written in the style of in-game lore books of The Elder Scrolls games, one of the last commanders of the Buoyant Armigers tell the story of what happened to their order after the events of the Nerevarine.





	Mastery's Words and Swords

Many long years ago, spellswords and sellswords all across Morrowind would make their way up the sacred steps to Vivec’s Palace in His City and offer their arm and soul in service to Mastery, Last of the Almsivi. The Temple was always in need of holy knights and defenders but such a solemn and pious charge appeals to few of us — even of House Redoran. Lord Vivec was there to ease our spirits, though, and He created His order: the Buoyant Armigers, so named to contrast that of the grave Ordinators. They were to exemplify His fierce carefree spirit of adventure, His honourable Seven Graces, and His Mastery of the subtle arts of combat, chivalry, and verse.

Young recruits are trained equally in the arts martial (including skilled use of bow, shield, and blade), magical (studying the schools Destructive and Restorative), and lexicon (the flawless and spontaneous use of poetry, riddle, and song), as well as the delicate use of shadow. Lord Vivec favours His knights to be as willful, agile, and graceful as He, though He always bestowed too much praise on us mortals. Much of their training is accomplished under the watchful eye of their sponsor, but a great deal of it is also independent, as Lord Vivec decreed His Armigers work to rid the land of the diseases of lawlessness and unnatural magics.

In turn, the Armigers grew far closer to Lord Vivec than even Her Hands ever were to Almalexia. After an apprentice was first taken and trained by a more experienced Armiger and was deemed fit, Lord Vivec would take their oath personally and impart words of wisdom before gifting the ceremonial glass armor and taking part in the great celebration Himself. At the end of the night, the new Armiger would be taken by Lord Vivec upon a great adventure, one they would surely never forget.

In the last years of the Third Era, everything changed. Once Dagoth Ur was defeated by the Nerevarine, we expected to receive an invitation to a great celebration at the Palace, as the Armigers had done during great victories of the past. Instead, word began to trickle down the Temple hierarchy that Lord Vivec was missing and, what we assumed to be, blasphemous rumours of His status and whereabouts. With Ghostgate no longer in need of guarding, we traveled to Molag Amur to convene with the rest of the Order. That night, many arguments were made but we came to a decision at last. The youngest apprentices and the eldest masters would stay on guard, but the rest of us, the greatest warriors and sorcerers, had an oath to keep.

When we first left our stations, there were forty of us. Following the rumours of Lord Vivec’s movements west, we left Vvardenfell altogether and combed the countryside and mountain peaks, as not even the most fantastical among us thought that He would leave Morrowind entire. Our gold and hope waned as the years passed. Some lightly suggested taking work as sellswords to raise the finances for a more thorough investigation, but the rest of us heard none of it. It was only when the Ministry of Truth fell and destroyed Vivec’s City that we began to lose faith. We argued for many sleepless nights as to the cause of it — Lord Vivec said that Love was under His Will only, so perhaps the Dunmer had lost their faith and were being punished, but many believed it meant He was dead and gone. Punches were thrown. But truth was impossible to ignore. The damage was devastating, the resulting Red Year catastrophic, and a number of us decided our loyalty to the families and Dunmer we had left behind were more important than our oaths. They left, unjudged by the rest of us, to return to the rebuilding effort and fight in the Oblivion Crisis and against the Argonian invasion.

Now, there were twelve remaining, I among them. Our faith was splintered but not yet shattered and we were determined to find what had happened to not only our patron, our Lord, our God-King, but also our dear friend. It took four more years of running through the Velothi Mountains with a fine-toothed comb before we came across a cave unlike any other, the cave Lord Vivec had sought peace in.

All of us remembered the Lord Vivec we had sworn loyalty beyond death to, the sprightly, graceful, ageless God who danced with spear and spell, dispensing wisdom and song for the ages with each breath and thought. The Lord we found in the cave was most certainly him, but He was near death, His three thousand years of divine life having caught up with him. His hair had grown and greyed, His eyes had dimmed, His face had wrinkled, but the knowing sad smile that greeted us was recognised by all.

There, He told us the story of the Tribunal and how they had risen to godhood, now known to be true by all in His own published words. He told us of His regrets in life and of His joys, counting the Buoyant Armigers among them. A wise prophet as a mortal as well as a divine, Lord Vivec told us the Dunmer would need strong protectors and swordarms in the years to come and He bid us to not lose hope in the lessons and Graces He had taught, for an Order who had tracked their Lord so faithfully does not deserve to vanish into the night and, as He had writ, He was always in the hearts and minds of His most faithful.

We dedicated ourselves anew to Lord Vivec and cared for Him the last months of His mortal life, before cremating the body of our greatest Ancestor. And so, we will follow our God’s dying wish. We will establish a new headquarters deep in the Velothis, we will take on and train new apprentices, and we will administer the oath and celebrations for new Armigers. The Knights of Lord Vivec will not disappear, regardless what becomes of the Temple.

For as Lord Vivec has said:

“Death does not diminish; the ghost is gilded with glory.”


End file.
